New equity indices are calculated for the United States covering the period from 1791 to the present. Indices include the GFD US-100, the Curb/AMEX, indices for Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago and other exchanges, new Railroad indices, Canada and Australia. The indices provide an opportunity to...

This paper studies the long-run evolution of bank risk and its links to the macroeconomy. Using data for 17 advanced economies, we show that the riskiness of bank assets declined materially between 1870 and 2016. But even though bank assets have become safer, the losses on these assets are...

New indices are provided for ten emerging markets. Using data from companies listed in London and New York in the 1800s and 1900s, new stock market indices are produced and discussed providing information on companies in Turkey, Egypt, Cuba, China, Singapore, South Africa, Argentina, Brazil,...

New indices for stocks, bonds and bills are generated for both Europe and for individual countries. The indices begin in 1601 for equities, 1700 for bonds and 1694 for bills. New indices are provided for Great Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia...

This paper studies the long-run evolution of bank risk and its links to the macroeconomy. Using data for 17 advanced economies, we show that the riskiness of bank assets declined materially between 1870 and 2016. But even though bank assets have become safer, the losses on these assets are...

In Strong Managers, Weak Owners, Professor Mark J. Roe articulates an expansive theory to explain the evolution of the fragmented market structure in the United States. He posits that political choices led to fragmentation in the American financial markets, thus guiding the evolution of the...

Why, since the mid-1980s, have so many European governments decided fiscally to support the development of private retirement savings accounts? Whereas analysts of pension reform in affluent democracies have traditionally considered the development of private pensions as a secondary outcome of...

This Article examines the International Monetary Fund's recent efforts to play an assertive regulatory role with regard to global capital flows. There is a growing consensus among scholars and policymakers that states must carefully manage capital flows and coordinate their policies for doing...

This lecture briefly revisits the evidence on the incidence and severity of different varieties of crises within the context of globalization then (pre 1914) and now (1980 to the present), in my earlier work with Barry Eichengreen and in my recent work with Chris Meissner. I then discuss the...

This paper seeks to add to the current debate about financial development and growth in the emerging world by looking at how different financial systems evolve: how and why financial structures change during various stages of development, how best to measure them, and seeing what practical...